GAZA — The United Nations warned on Saturday that fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip have reached “critical levels,” raising fears of worsening humanitarian conditions in the war-torn enclave, as Israel continues to block the entry of aid into Gaza for four consecutive months.
Seven UN agencies said in a joint statement that “fuel is the backbone of survival in Gaza.”
Fuel was needed to “power hospitals, water systems, sanitation networks, ambulances, and every aspect of humanitarian operations,” they said, highlighting that bakeries also needed fuel to operate.
“Fuel shortage in Gaza has reached critical levels,” warned the agencies, including the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme and the humanitarian agency OCHA.
“After almost two years of war, people in Gaza are facing extreme hardships, including widespread food insecurity,” they pointed out.
“When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation.”
The UN said that without adequate fuel, the agencies that have been responding to the deep humanitarian crisis in a territory swathes of which have been flattened by Israeli bombing and facing famine warnings, “will likely be forced to stop their operations entirely.”
“This means no health services, no clean water, and no capacity to deliver aid,” the statement said.
“Without adequate fuel, Gaza faces a collapse of humanitarian efforts,” it warned.
“Without fuel, bakeries and community kitchens cannot operate. Water production and sanitation systems will shut down, leaving families without safe drinking water, while solid waste and sewage pile up in the streets,” it added.
“These conditions expose families to deadly disease outbreaks and push Gaza’s most vulnerable even closer to death.”
The warning comes days after the UN managed to bring fuel into Gaza for the first time in 130 days.
While a “welcome development,” the UN agencies said the 75,000 liters of fuel they were able to bring in was just “a small fraction of what is needed each day to keep daily life and critical aid operations running.”
“The United Nations agencies and humanitarian partners cannot overstate the urgency of this moment,” they said.
“Fuel must be allowed into Gaza in sufficient quantities and consistently to sustain life-saving operations.”
Last week, two of Gaza’s largest hospitals issued urgent pleas for help as fuel shortages put the lives of premature babies and other patients at grave risk.
Muhammad Abu Salmiyah, the director of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest facility, told reporters that the lives of more than 100 premature babies and some 350 dialysis patients were at risk.
“Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil,” Salmiyah said.
“The hospital will cease to be a place of healing and will become a graveyard for those inside,” he said.
Abu Salmiyah went on to accuse Israel of “trickle-feeding” fuel to Gaza’s hospitals, and said that al-Shifa’s dialysis department had already been shut down to conserve power for the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which cannot be without electricity for even a few minutes.
In Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex said it has entered “the crucial and final hours” due to the fuel shortages.
“With the fuel counter nearing zero, doctors have entered the battle to save lives in a race against time, death, and darkness,” the hospital said in a statement.
“Medical teams fight to the last breath. They have only their conscience and hope in those who hear the call – save Nasser Medical Complex before it turns into a silent graveyard for patients who could have been saved.”
Mohammed Sakr, a spokesman for the hospital, told Reuters that the facility needs 4,500 litres (1,189 gallons) of fuel per day to function, but it now has only 3,000 litres (790 gallons) – enough to last 24 hours.
Sakr said doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning, and the sweat from staff is dripping into patients’ wounds, risking infection.
Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza, said that “hundreds” of people could die in the territory if fuel supplies are not brought in urgently.
This includes “dozens” of premature babies who could die within the next two days, he said. Dialysis and intensive care patients would also lose their lives, he said, adding that the injuries of the wounded were worsening amid deteriorating conditions, while diseases like meningitis were spreading.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who recently returned from Gaza, said, “You can have the best hospital staff on the planet”, but if they are denied medicine and fuel, operating a health facility “becomes an impossibility”.
“What little fuel remains is already being used to power the most essential operations – such as intensive care units and water desalination – but those supplies are running out fast, and there are virtually no additional accessible stocks left,” the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) said on Tuesday.
“Hospitals are rationing. Ambulances are stalling. Water systems are on the brink. The deaths this is likely causing could soon increase sharply unless the Israeli authorities allow new fuel in – urgently, regularly and in sufficient quantities.”
A photo showing several premature babies placed in a single incubator at a hospital in Gaza has been widely circulated on social media. Commenting on the image, Dr. Munis al-Bursh said:
“In a heartbreaking scene that reflects the total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system, six premature babies are crammed into one incubator, a device designed for just a single infant. This isn’t the result of medical negligence, but of dire conditions: more than 22 hospitals have been forced out of service by Israeli airstrikes, the blockade has prevented the entry of essential medical equipment, and both fuel and electricity have been completely cut off.”
On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, fuel, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.
An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report in May warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.
After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.
Moreover, Israeli mass killings of aid seekers near GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are targeted by Israeli forces. Since the GHF started its operations on May 27 in Gaza, over 780 aid seekers have been killed and over 5,100 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.
But fuel has not entered the territory in more than four months.
Just 18 of Gaza’s 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the WHO. The health sector is “on its knees,” it added, facing severe shortages of fuel and medical supplies amid a constant influx of mass casualties.
Israeli air strikes and months of bombardment have devastated Gaza’s hospitals, many of which were already struggling under the Israeli blockade.
Palestinian medics and health officials have repeatedly accused the Israeli military of deliberately targeting hospitals.
C. QNN
